The inscription on the base of this Nike (ancient Greek for Victory) names the sculptor as Archermos. According to ancient sources he was the inventor of this type of figure, running and with wings. Her missing arms and legs would have been akimbo, a stylised way of showing figures running, often seen in depictions of Medusa.
The figure was found on the Cycladic island of Delos, the inscription a little afterwards. It may have stood on its own pillar or could have been an akroterion, a temple roof ornament; flying victory figures were favourite subjects for akroteria
Athens National Museum 21
Purchased 1884, from Martinelli, Athens
Lippold: Griechische Plastik, 63 (n.12), pl. 7.4
Markade, J: Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique LXXIV (1950) 182; pl. XXXI for supposed arms
Karo: Personality in Greek Archaic Art, 221-222, pl. 20
Buschor: Athenische Mittheilungen LIV (1929) 152
Papaspiridi: Guide du Musée Nationale d’Athènes (1927), 24
Homolle, T: Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique III (1879) 393-5, pls. VI&VII
Walston: Catalogue of Casts in the Museum of Classical Archaeology (1889), 19, no.59
Reporter: 19 June 1885, 891, no.53
Stewart: Greek Sculpture, 116, pl. 92
Karakasi: Archaic Korai (2003), 97
Inscription on base naming Archermos as sculptor
Found in front of the old Temple of Artemis at Delos in 1887
